Critic’s choice

Akira Kurosawa made his directorial debut in 1943, during the height of World War II and at a time when “you weren’t allowed to say anything worth saying,” as he recalled. “Back then everyone was saying that the Japanese-style film should be as simple as possible; I disagreed and decided that, since I couldn’t say anything because of the censors, I would make a really movie-like movie.” MORE about

Bergman’s dreamlike family chronicle is set in turn-of-the-century Sweden, where the members of an upper-middle-class theatrical clan are sheltered by their own theatrics from the deepening chaos of the outside world. MORE about <em>Fanny and Alexander</em>

The Price of Everything is a lively exploration of the uneasy but inextricable relationship between art and money. Raising more questions than it answers, this documentary ponders how monetary value affects artists, galleries, museums, and collectors and what is lost when speculation outpaces the possibility for contemplation.MORE about <em>The Price of Everything</em>

With the return of the sun comes a promise from nature of renewal and growth. Attune with the natural slow, calm, inward energy of the Winter Solstice during this unique concert with live meditative sounds of quartz crystal singing bowls and finely tuned gongs within a grove of redwoods.MORE about Winter Solstice Sound Bath

It’s winter in a small mountain town in Czechoslovakia, and time for the Firemen’s Ball, an annual comedy of errors to which the firemen, mostly elderly, look forward with delight, especially at the prospect of the inevitable beauty-queen contest. MORE about <em>The Firemen’s Ball</em>

Ever the nostalgic fabulist, Hayao Miyazaki builds a passage between modern, everyday Japanese life and the half-remembered realms of spirits and folklore in this compelling adventure, winner of numerous international prizes including the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.MORE about <em>Spirited Away</em>

The story begins in a high-society club in San Francisco where Kay Hoog, an American sportsman, tells of a message he found in a barnacle-encrusted bottle. In short order, Lang’s artful montage sequences lead us through Hoog’s globetrotting encounters with femme fatale Lio Shia, leader of the worldwide criminal organization called The Spiders.MORE about <em>The Spiders, Part 1 — The Golden Lake</em>